As challenges such as AI safety, data privacy and misinformation become increasingly prevalent, the Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) integrates ethics modules into select undergraduate computer science courses. In recognition of the program’s impact on the undergraduate student learning experience, the team behind E3I has won the 2024 Northrop Frye Award (Team), one of the prestigious U of T Alumni Association Awards of Excellence.

Acclaimed science fiction author Ted Chiang reflects on these and related questions: What is the relationship between technology and human cognition? How have writing and language been deployed as technologies throughout human history? And what does the future of computers hold—will it give rise to a new kind of cognitive technology?

The Schwartz Reisman Institute’s annual academic conference will take place May 6–8, 2024, with select sessions taking place in the newly-completed Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus located in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District. Speakers include: Peter Railton, Harper Reed, Huili Chen, Ray Perrault, Gillian Hadfield, and more.

Can algorithmic decision-making help clear backlogs in the courts, and is this a justified use of the technology? Do automated systems make “better” decisions than human judges, and what do we mean by “better”? Should legal professionals be involved in the design of automated systems, and if so, how? Nathalie Smuha and Abdi Aidid discuss these and related questions.

Undergraduate students at the University of Toronto reflect on what they learned from attending a book launch event on data and human rights—and how they see the future unfolding in the digital age.

U of T University Professor emeritus and “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton delivered a lecture at Convocation Hall discussing whether large language models understand what they are doing and the existential risks posed by unfettered development of the technology he helped create.

Amidst today’s broad social impacts of data, we must pay specific attention to the risks posed by facial recognition technology, writes Daniel Konikoff, who argues that Bill C-27’s failure to classify biometric data as sensitive suggests that the bill has an unstable grasp on our tricky technological present.

What do we need to do to ensure that artificial intelligence is built for public benefit? A recent course developed by the Schwartz Reisman Institute explains what AI is, where it’s headed, and what the public needs to know about it.

In We, The Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we need to reboot human rights to match the pressures of our data-intensive world. Exploring surveillance, facial recognition technologies, data rights, and more, Wong makes a compelling case for why the public needs to engage Big Tech as data stakeholders.

Luke Stark, an assistant professor at Western University, has been appointed as the inaugural Schwartz Reisman Scholar-in-Residence. Stark’s work interrogates the historical, social, and ethical impacts of computing and artificial intelligence technologies, particularly those mediating social and emotional expression.

A new AI-powered solutions network for predicting and preventing diabetes developed by SRI researchers Laura Rosella, Jennifer Gibson, and Shion Guha has received $900K in funding from CIFAR’s AI for Health Solution Networks grant program.

Like an ouroboros—or snake eating its own tail—future AI models trained on the internet, where AI-generated content is expected to become ubiquitous, could end up devouring the problematic work of their predecessors.